MANC icon Morrissey has apologised to mega-selling quartet the Arctic Monkeys for his recent comments on their rapid rise to success.

While at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, earlier this month the former Smiths singer suggested the Sheffield actés phenomenal success had come too soon and was "a bit unnatural".

However now Morrissey, whose new LP, Ringleader Of The Tormentors, hits the shops on April 3, has issued a further statement to NME.com to apologise.

"I'm sorry that the comments I made at South By Southwest about the Arctic Monkeys were printed so harshly in The Times and the NME," states Moz.

Grannies

"I actually quite like the Arctic Monkeys and whatever I said was said with tender, avuncular concern. I hope to God I didn't upset their grannies," he added.

"In any case, I was wrong about their success being too sudden and without any dues paid, because that's exactly how it happened for The Smiths. So, I really should shut it."

The Arctic Monkeys have sold nearly one million copies of their debut offering, Whatever You Say I Am, Thatés What Iém Not, in the UK alone and recently made the bridge across the Atlantic by performing on Saturday Night Live in the US.